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House Passes Amendment to Limit the NSA's Spying - See How Your Representative Voted Here!

On Thursday night, the House of Representatives voted on an amendment (H.Amdt. 935), led by Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), that would require the NSA and other intelligence agencies to follow due process and obtain a warrant to collect the communications of American citizens. Congress has come close to passing limitations on government surveillance since Edward Snowden exposed the extent of the NSA's intrusion into our privacy, but consistently came just a few votes shy.

But this time, a huge bi-partisan majority voted to defend the 4th Amendment, passing Massie's amendment, 293-123. 135 Republicans and 158 Democrats joined forces for this momentous vote, with 94 Republicans and 24 Democrats voting against it. You can see how your representative voted HERE.

A great deal of thanks is due to the Representatives who actively worked to get this amendment passed - and particularly to Congressman Massie and his staff.

Although this victory is not final - the Senate must still pass this NSA-limiting language in their own Department of Defense Appropriations bill - the momentum is clearly on the side of those who would rein in the government's out-of-control surveillance state.

There's no indication that the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying efforts have thwarted an actual terrorist plot inside the United States. In January 2014, the New America Foundation released a report on the 225 individuals investigated for terrorism in which it explained that the so-called "all calls" surveillance program "had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism."

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have introduced the Surveillance State Repeal Act that would end the NSA’s unconstitutional domestic spying. I can say without hesitation: this bill is the real deal.

There are many big issues on the minds of senators as they consider the nomination of Loretta Lynch to serve as the next attorney general. But among the most concerning is that she has made it very clear that she'll continue the astonishing pattern of overreach to support warrantless spying, and she'll do it under the guise of narratives that have long been debunked.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is one of the best in the upper chamber when it comes to budget and spending issues, earning high marks in 2013 and 2014 on FreedomWorks' congressional scorecard. He's also expanding the reach of the Republican Party with his youthfulness and pop culture savvy.

FreedomWorks activists sent nearly 5,000 messages to their representatives to support email privacy reform. In the two weeks leading up to Data Privacy Day, activists around the country made it clear that it is unacceptable that emails older than 180 days can be accessed by the government without a warrant.

President Barack Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address to Congress last night, laying out a litany of mostly terrible policy proposals, as well as attempting to defend his economic record. There's no denying that he's a strong orator who tells a story very well, but the substance of the speech itself was more of the same stale ideas and poor leadership that Americans have seen throughout the course of his presidency. Though there are plenty of policy items worthy of analysis, here are some lines that stuck out.

It didn't take long for the intelligence community's best friends in Congress to invoke last week's terrorist attack in Paris, in which 17 people were brutally killed at the offices of a satirical magazine, in the contentious and continuing debate over the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying programs.